GRAHAM — Everywhere Graham police officer Adam Walker drove in his patrol car, there was a head resting on his shoulder, a constant reminder of the presence of his canine friend in the back seat. It was their routine: Sully, his red Labrador partner, would go into his kennel, which occupied the entire back seat area of Walker’s police car, and Walker would leave the kennel gate open for Sully to stick his head out.

After around four years with Sully, Walker found him dead last Friday.

“I went to get him out of his kennel and just found him deceased,” Walker said.

The police department is waiting on results from an autopsy to determine Sully’s cause of death, which remains a mystery, Walker said.

The two were paired up in 2011, when Sully was 9 months old. Sully was Walker’s first K-9, and the two went to training school together, where Walker trained him in tracking and detecting narcotics.

“When I went and picked him up, I knew everything was going to be just fine when he put his head on my shoulder,” Walker said. “Everything clicked, and it was meant to be. It was a partnership that won’t ever be duplicated.”

WALKER’S YOUNGEST son and Sully were a month apart in age, and Walker said the two had grown close. In addition to traveling with Sully everywhere for work, Walker said, he would take the dog out places with his family.

“Anywhere I went, Sully went,” he said.

Walker joked that though Sully’s paperwork indicates the dog is a yellow Lab, he has always been a red one. Walker wasn’t sure why the department decided to buy a Labrador over other K-9 breeds, but said “he had a drive like I’ve never seen in a dog.”

“He could track like nobody’s business.” Walker said. “We found several missing persons.”

The department also frequently used Sully at school demonstrations and public relations events, said Lt. Pete Acosta. Walker said they never had to worry about the dog’s behavior around young children.

THE GRAHAM POLICE Department is holding a memorial for Sully at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel of McClure Funeral Service in Graham. Walker said Sully had been cremated by Alamance Pet Cremations.

McClure is allowing the department to use its chapel at no cost, and is also donating an urn for Sully’s remains and a portrait to be hung in the police department, said Ken Stainback, a director and owner at the funeral home.

Stainback said they expect 50 to 70 people at the funeral, including K-9 handlers and their dogs from around a 50-mile radius. He said the service will start with the K-9s forming an honor line as Walker enters with Sully’s remains, and the dogs will then be taken back to their respective patrol cars — which will be left running, he added.

Page 2 of 2 - Acosta said the department’s chaplain would speak at the service.

“It’ll be a funeral,” Acosta said. “It’s close to something we would do for any of our officers that pass away. Even though he’s a K-9, he’s considered a partner to Officer Walker, so we’re going to treat him as such.”

Walker said he has found his niche in K-9 handling and hopes eventually to be paired with another dog, though it will be hard to have another take the place of Sully.

“There’s definitely a void,” Walker said. “He’s irreplaceable, that’s for sure. He was the best dog I’ve ever had, and the only dog I’ve had as far as police dogs go.”